DEF LEPPARD to appear on Paul McCartney Tribute compilation The Art of Paul McCartney featuring covers of songs by McCartney during his tenures in the Beatles and Wings and as a solo artist. Read the full article HERE

This guitar has been in and on many magazine covers and articles with and without me not to mention Def Leppard videos. It currently resides at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland Ohio in a coffin-well a glass case actually but close enough considering the face painted on the guitar.

The artwork was done by Dan Lawrence. During the recording of the Hysteria album I ordered my second custom Jackson guitar (the first being the cracked black and silver Soloist in the 'Women' and 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' videos). Grover Jackson, the name where the Jackson guitars title comes from said, "You know we could paint anything on a guitar and even make it glow in the dark". Back in the 80s when Grover still owned Jackson Guitars he was pretty hands on. Many a time he would come out on tour, make sketches that would later take shape on wood, and eventually become a guitar. I'd also go to the old factory and Grover would take a saw to a guitar and hack a new shape. I even have a prototype Phil Collen guitar at home that has pencil marks and is totally raw which was hacked out by Grover (I'll take a photo and share it with you all when I get home). Anyway Grover said, "If you get me a photo we can copy it." Being a horror movie buff like Grover I went to Forbidden Planet, a comic and memorabilia store in London and got an 8x10 black and white photo of Bela Lugosi, arguably the most famous film version of the vampire Dracula and sent it out to California to the Jackson factory.There's a story about when the artwork and specs were left on a table and the next day a vampire bat was on the wall next to the plans when everybody came into work in the morning. That aside the guitar was finally finished and made it's first live appearance on the Hysteria tour.

The guitar itself is/was a Jackson dinky with a bolt on neck. It originally had a Khaler trem system on it as did a lot of my early guitars mainly because my friend and red hot guitar player Rudi Riviere knew the tremelo bridge's systems inventor Dave Story when he designed the trem in London. The guitar has been through some major changes over the years but still glows like crazy when the lights go out. I had Dimarzio super distortion humbuckers put in as the guitar has 2 hum buckers, not that you can see them as they have plastic covers painted over. It has an ebony fingerboard with shark fin inlays and I eventually had a Floyd Rose tremelo system installed with an FU-tone titanium block.

This guitar has improved with age and sounds better than it ever did. I've had it for 28 years. You can hear this guitar on the first half of the solo on 'Let's Get Rocked' and see it on the videos 'Animal', 'Armageddon It', 'and 'Rock On'. You can also hear it on the live version of 'Nine Lives' on the Mirrorball album.

I just got to play it for one night only (Tues Aug 26th) when we played Cuyahoga Falls near Cleveland. I would like to thank the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum's Shelby Morrison, Mngr of Artist & VIP Relations and Amanda Pecsenye-Registrar for bringing, hanging with us, and later collecting Bela at our Cleveland Show at the Blossom Music Center. Scotty set it up and re-strung it. I played it on 'Love Bites', 'Let's Get Rocked', 'Armageddon It', and 'Sugar' before it had to be returned to it's crypt before daylight. You can see Bela on display anytime at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. I'll probably get it back next year so it can go on our 2015 world tour with me, of course.

D.L. will perform the pre-game show at the first of this year’s three NFL International Series games on Sunday 28 September, when the Oakland Raiders host the Miami Dolphins. Click on image to watch the announcement video below.

Joe Elliott states “Having most recently visited Wembley in May to watch Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-final, I know what the atmosphere in the ground is like for ‘our’ football so I’m really looking forward to performing there before the NFL game and of course soaking up the excitement of the actual match. I can’t wait!”

“Having Def Leppard perform at Wembley is going to be very exciting and a lot of fun,” said Alistair Kirkwood, Managing Director of NFLUK. “We know their performance will get Wembley pumping, have the fans on their feet and set the tone for a great game.”

A limited number of tickets returned by the participating teams will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Thursday September 4 via www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

The Raiders-Dolphins game will kick off at 6:00 p.m. UK time (1:00p.m. ET) and will be aired live in the UK on Channel 4 and Sky Sports and in the US on CBS.

This guitar was a surprise gift for my 50th birthday, orchestrated by Scott Appleton and kept quiet by Jackson Guitars. Unfortunately, its production was held up so it appeared on my 51st birthday. Scott had done the initial artwork which states my birthplace and date in old English font (for anyone who wondered what those markings meant on the guitar). It was further enhanced by our lovely wardrobe and dressing room coordinator Lesley Mortimer-Wallace when she blinged and bejeweled my guitar out in the same Swarovski crystals she used on my microphone stand that you can see in one of these photos below.

London 57 has had much love from me and is one of my 'go to' guitars i.e. tv appearances, The Voice & other event performances, and recording sessions. It's faithful and sounds killer. London 57 is a classic Jackson PC-1 with a mahogany body with a maple top. It has a slightly larger than standard maple neck and fingerboard. It's fitted with a Floyd Rose trem with FU-Tone titanium saddles and block, a Dimarzio super 3 in the bridge position, an HS-2 in the middle and the Jackson driver/sustainer in the neck position. It's strung with D'Addario 13-54 gauge strings. I play this guitar on the electric part of 'Bringing on The Heartbreak' and 'Switch 625' on this tour.

Win an autographed DiMarzio Super 3 pickups. Upload your photo of Phil with any of his guitars from the 2014 summer tour w/ KISS and be entered to win. U.S. residents only and must be at least 18 years of age. Enter HERE